Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1123 1118 [Strong people emerge in endlessly]

Anbahai was not Kublai Khan's biological brother, but his cousin.

During the expansion of more than ten years, Ambaghai had one-third of the people of all the Mongolian tribes. The relationship between him and Kublai Khan was not just that of a monarch and his subject, but more like a partner in starting a business together.

Historically, when Kublai Khan was dying, he did not pass the throne to any of his sons, but very rationally chose his cousin to inherit the throne.

But Anbahai still couldn't save Mongolia. At that time, there was a ballad like this: The starry sky is spinning, all the tribes are rebelling, and we can't sleep peacefully. We fight for wealth. The grass is turning over, all the tribes are rebelling, and we can't sleep peacefully. You attack me and I fight you. There is no time to miss you, only to collide with each other...

At this time, Mongolia's strength had far surpassed that of another time and space because it had driven away the Tatars early on.

Kublai Khan claimed that he had 100,000 soldiers, which was of course an exaggerated boast. But if teenagers aged 14 or 15 were included, it would still be possible to pull out 50,000 Mongolian cavalry.

The Mongolian cavalry here are naturally not the kind of fighting machines wearing multiple layers of armor. They don't have the conditions yet, let alone equipping multiple layers of iron armor, and even the arrows cannot be guaranteed to be made entirely of iron.

Using bone arrows and stone arrows is very normal on the grassland.

Anyone who can own a leather helmet and leather armor is considered an elite cavalryman.

In comparison, Zhu Zhongming's Khitan cavalry was much more elite. They had turned against the Jin army in Dading Prefecture and helped Yue Fei to defeat the defeated Jin soldiers, snatching more than 80 sets of iron armor and more than 300 sets of leather and iron armor from the defeated elite Jin soldiers.

Zhu Mingyi's troops, who were sent to help by Yue Fei, were mostly prisoners who were defeated in the war when they were vassals of the Jin Kingdom. They were broken up and reorganized by Yue Fei, and formed a new scattered tribe with some Tang people.

Such scattered tribes did not even have a proper chief, but were instead commanded by a commander (a foreign race) appointed by the imperial court. Even the grasslands where they lived were named so-and-so townships.

Together, the two divisions had more than six thousand soldiers.

When it was confirmed that Yue Fei would not come to help in person, but Han Shizhong would lead his troops south, and that they would need to hold out for a while, Zhu Zhongming and Zhu Mingyi had no choice but to go ahead.

The sky cleared after the snow, and the snow on the grassland was just high enough to cover the horses' hooves. The two sides fought on the west bank of the Yeliguna River.

Six thousand versus eight thousand (with two thousand Mongolian soldiers lying in ambush), Zhu Zhongming and Zhu Mingyi, who had fewer soldiers, actually had the upper hand. This was because they had been following Yue Fei for many years, so not only were their weapons and equipment better, but they were also more courageous and aggressive.

An Bahai was so frightened by the beating that he quickly adjusted his battle strategy and blew the horn of feigning defeat in advance to lure the enemy.

Even if you pretend to be defeated, you have to pretend to be defeated.

To be more precise, the Mongols were alternating to cover their retreat.

Although the two chieftains Zhu Zhongming and Zhu Mingyi had ordinary military capabilities, they were extremely experienced in combat. When they led their troops in pursuit, they always followed behind the right side of the Mongolian soldiers, making it impossible for the Mongolian cavalry to shoot from behind.

Even among the soldiers who grew up on the grassland, few could shoot with either hand or with the bow. Most of them held the bow in their left hand and pulled the string with their right hand, so they could only shoot arrows to their left and back. It was very difficult to shoot arrows to their right and back.

However, the pursuers behind them on the right can chase and shoot at the same time.

The Mongolian cavalrymen who were retreating alternately were shot off their horses if they were not careful. Zhu Zhongming and Zhu Mingyi became more and more skilled in fighting, and no longer took the Mongolian cavalry seriously. They chased forward with their blood boiling.

This area is the junction of mountains and grasslands, but the mountains are not steep, and there are grasslands on the mountains for grazing.

The two sides chased each other for more than 20 miles. Anbahai's eldest son, Hadan, who had been defeated by Han Shizhong in the mountains before, suddenly rushed out of the mountains with all the elite troops of Anbahai.

There were only 2000 of these elite troops, but they had more than 60 sets of iron armor, more than 400 sets of leather and iron mixed armor, and the rest were all equipped with leather armor, and all of them carried enough iron arrows.

At this moment, the armies of Zhu Zhongming and Zhu Mingyi had been in disarray due to the long-distance pursuit of the enemy. On the battlefield, which was more than ten miles wide, they were scattered in all directions, only focusing on chasing the enemy in front of them.

The two thousand elite Mongolian soldiers led by Hadan suddenly rushed out and blocked a cavalry group of Zhu Zhongming's troops, instantly reversing the situation on the battlefield.

Zhu Zhongming personally led his troops to rescue and prevent the Mongolian ambush from expanding the victory. However, those Mongolian elites, led by Hadan, continued to charge and ignored Zhu Zhongming who rushed over in a hurry.

At the same time, the main Mongolian force that had been "escaping" turned around and fought back under the leadership of Anbahai.

About 2,000 grassland cavalrymen who had surrendered to the Ming Dynasty were instantly attacked from both sides and were killed and fled in all directions. Zhu Mingyi rushed too far forward and was unable to leave the battlefield for a while, so he was killed by the soldiers led by An Bahai's second son.

Seeing the troops in front of him disintegrate, Zhu Zhongming was horrified and led the remaining troops to flee.

An Bahai led his troops to chase for nearly ten miles, then blew the horn and ordered to clean up the battlefield and retreat. Their combat goal was to inflict heavy damage on the enemy and attract Yue Fei's main force, and to withdraw quickly to prevent Han Shizhong from coming to kill them.

In this battle, 10000 Mongolian cavalrymen were involved in the battle, more than 400 were killed, more than 80 were seriously injured, and more than 3000 were slightly injured to varying degrees - mainly from arrows.

Zhu Zhongming and Zhu Mingyi had more than 6000 cavalrymen fighting, of whom more than 2800 were killed, some of whom were captured and then executed. Even Zhu Mingyi himself was killed in the battle.

Hadan came over happily and reported: "Father, this time we seized more than 1700 uninjured war horses. We stripped more than 2000 sets of armor from the corpses, 16 of which were iron armor!"

"Very good, let's rest for a while and then retreat!" An Bahai was also very happy.

Sixteen sets of iron armor were a major harvest, not to mention many sets of leather armor and mixed leather and iron armor.

After the horses and soldiers recovered a little, Anbahai led his troops to withdraw along the south bank of the Yeliguna River. He was not only afraid of Han Shizhong's attack, but also afraid of Yue Fei's sudden appearance, and even more afraid of being attacked from both sides by Han and Yue.

That afternoon.

Anbahai's joy after the great victory disappeared because the Ming army's reconnaissance cavalry appeared in front of him.

As the Ming army scouts blew their horns, more and more Ming army cavalry arrived, and Anbahai turned pale.

The troops heading in that direction could only be Han Shizhong's troops.

"How did Han Shizhong get here so quickly?" An Bahai couldn't understand it at all. He could only conclude that he was just unlucky and happened to bump into him.

If Han Shizhong came here after receiving the news, he would not arrive until tomorrow morning at least. Moreover, those who could arrive tomorrow morning must be exhausted soldiers who were quick reinforcements.

Hadan had been traumatized by Han Shizhong's attack, and at this moment he muttered to himself: "Could it be that Changshengtian is also blessing the Ming people? Otherwise, why would Han Shizhong be here?"

I don’t know whether Changshengtian has any blessings, but the God of Telegraph is definitely on the side of the Ming army.

At this moment, the Mongolian cavalrymen in front of them were charging at them. They had experienced a fierce battle in the morning and only rested for half an hour before retreating. They were truly exhausted!

Han Shizhong's army only had 5,000 cavalry, and the rest had already returned to the south of the desert. Because there were too many troops left in the north of the desert, there was not enough food.

The battle horn sounded, and five thousand Ming cavalry swept in.

Among them, 4,000 were brave cavalrymen wearing medium-sized cotton armor and their horses light-weight armor. The remaining 1,000 were light cavalrymen, all of whom also wore light cotton armor.

Compared with these Ming cavalry, the Mongolian cavalry are as poor as beggars!

By the way, with the improvement of chariot formations and the increasing popularity of firearms, the number of Ming heavy cavalry has decreased instead of increased.

At present, there are only 2500 heavy cavalry troops left in the entire Ming Dynasty. One thousand are in Luoyang as imperial guards, one thousand are near Shandan Horse Farm, and five hundred are in Anxi Protectorate.

The cavalry troops were expanded accordingly, able to charge and raid, and were much more convenient to use than the heavy cavalry.

Of course, the brave cavalry in the eyes of the Ming emperor and his ministers were often regarded as heavy cavalry by the surrounding forces...

Both the men and the horses are wearing armor, so what else could they be but heavy cavalry?

The well-equipped Ming cavalry, which was well-rested, accelerated and charged towards the exhausted Mongolian cavalry.

Anbahai's first reaction was not to engage in battle, but to abandon the spare horses and food and lead the entire army to flee to the southeast.

Only a fool would confront someone head-on!

"Blow the horn, and the light cavalry will intercept." Han Shizhong ordered.

They had a plan in place. After the horn sounded, a thousand Ming cavalrymen immediately rushed south.

Although Han Shizhong and Yue Fei had always served as protector generals in the south of the desert, many of their subordinates had been transferred, otherwise ten years would have been enough for them to become semi-warlords.

At this moment, the general leading a thousand light cavalry to attack was named Zhai Cong, who had been transferred to Han Shizhong's army only three years ago.

But, they are old acquaintances.

Zhai Cong was the son of Zhai Xing. In history, several people including father and son, brothers, uncle and nephew started an uprising. They first won merit for protecting the mausoleum of the Zhao Song Dynasty. Later, when the Central Plains was in chaos, the Zhai family army fought against the Jin in Luoyang. They recruited soldiers and collected food by themselves, and the court was only responsible for conferring officials.

The 700 local soldiers of the Zhai brothers launched a surprise attack on Luoyang, captured the Luoyang commander who had surrendered to the Jin army, and took the initiative to attack and win battles, defeating the Jin army besieging Luoyang many times. Unfortunately, two of the generals under the Zhai brothers were bribed by the Jin army.

Zhai Cong's father, uncle, brother, and cousin were all killed by traitors and Jin soldiers. He himself led his troops outside and survived. He led a small force to Luoyang to avenge his relatives, captured Meng Bangxiong, the Luoyang garrison of the pseudo-Qi, alive, and later broke through the siege and fought all the way from Luoyang to Xiangyang.

In this time and space, the Zhai family members were subdued by Han Shizhong in Luoyang, and later they were dispersed and transferred around to serve as generals in various armies.

However, Zhai Cong led a thousand light cavalry and was sent by Han Shizhong to stop the Mongolian cavalry from escaping.

The Mongols fled southeast, and Zhai Cong went straight south to block them. When the two armies met, Zhai Cong was already on the flank of the front of the Mongol army.

Entanglement and obstruction?

Zhai Cong charged directly!

Even if it was just the Ming light cavalry, their weapons and armor were superior to most Mongolian cavalry.

Anbahai urgently dispatched his second son Wukusu to stop it.

Wukushu led his troops to turn hastily to engage the enemy. Zhai Cong had already used the light cavalry as elite cavalry and rushed straight to him on his first horse.

Although Zhai Cong is not well-known in history, he has a record of capturing enemy generals alive many times, including Bao Gu, the Hedong commander-in-chief of the Jin Dynasty.

At this time, Zhai Cong fired three arrows in a row, shooting down three Mongolian cavalrymen, and then quickly drew back his bow and charged into the enemy formation with his spear. He was hit by two arrows and his horse was also hit by one arrow, but he fought more fiercely and knocked down several enemy cavalrymen in succession.

Then, he rushed straight towards Wukushu, because Wukushu was wearing iron armor!

Wu Kushu had never met such a madman before. For a moment, he was overwhelmed by Zhai Cong's power. He subconsciously slowed down his horse and let his guards stop him.

Zhai Cong's subordinates also rushed into the battle formation, and under his encouragement, they all fought bravely.

In a blink of an eye, more than ten of Wukushu's personal guards were killed or injured. Wukushu was so scared that he reined in his horse and fled.

Zhai Cong caught up with him and thrust his spear into the armor on Wukushu's back. He sped up his horse and reached out with his left hand to grab Wukushu, pulling him off the horse's back, then threw him to the ground and continued forward.

After landing, Wukushu was quickly trampled to death by the warhorse.

Zhai Cong didn't care and went straight to An Bahai.

As a result of Zhai Cong's interference, a large group of Mongolian cavalry nearby were thrown into chaos, and Han Shizhong had already led his cavalry to attack.

The exhausted Mongolian cavalry were caught up by Han Shizhong and could neither defeat nor escape. After being chased for only a few miles, the surviving Mongolian soldiers fled in all directions, aimlessly trying to save their lives.

Zhai Cong was still charging, and his charge was smoother because the enemy was already in chaos.

In order to protect his father, Anbahai, Hadan personally led his troops to stop Zhai Cong. Then, the first Grand Tutor of the Mongolian State (the Mongol State conferred by the Jin Dynasty) was defeated by Zhai Cong in one encounter.

"kill!"

Zhai Cong was already covered in blood, and he didn't know which parts were from the enemy and which were from himself. Four arrows were stuck in his light cotton armor.

The Mongolian cavalry in front were so frightened by Zhai Cong that no one dared to fight him, and they all rode their horses to flee to both sides.

Under the sunset, above the grassland.

Five thousand Ming cavalrymen chased the Mongolian cavalry and killed them like rabbits.

(End of this chapter)